Grants & Opportunities

Young people shaping livelihoods across three generations. This proposal for a third cohort to the Life Patterns longitudinal study aims to investigate how in a context of technological and structural change a new generation of young Australians builds livelihood-resilience, keeping the focus on those elements that have proven to be enabling for previous generations. The project aims to generate new knowledge about the influences of education, work, housing, relationships, wellbeing on positive trajectories. Expected outcomes of this project include systematic evidence and a new holistic livelihood-resilience framework for analysing youth trajectories. This project should provide significant benefits to the national response supporting positive youth transitions through education and work.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1608 - Sociology. Lead: Prof Johanna Wyn

The pull-out capacity of a newly developed grouted soil nailing system. The project aims to develop a new reliable and efficient grouted soil nail system for improving the performance of loose soft soils. Important applications of the research include the mitigation of landslides, which pose a major threat to communities and infrastructure worldwide. Laboratory small scale experiments and numerical analyses will be carried out to optimize the grouting efficiency and enhance the pull-out resistance between the grout and surrounded soil in the soil nail system. This integrated project will provide a valuable tool for engineers who wish to stabilize loose fill slopes or soft grounds in Australia and worldwide.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Shanyong Wang

Heat transfer and fluid flow in geomaterials: Physics-inspired AI framework. Processes involving fluid flow or heat transfer are of critical importance in engineering applications (e.g., in dams, geothermal systems, oil & gas production). Though largely overlooked, microstructural features control these processes in geomaterials. This project aims to exploit advances in high-resolution 4D imaging to extract essential microstructural information to: 1) identify new parameters that better capture pore and particle properties, connectivities and pathways, and 2) develop advanced predictive analytics tools. This will improve fundamental understanding of the link between microstructure and fluid and heat flows at the engineering scale, and provide predictive tools to reduce risk and costs to industry.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Guillermo Narsilio

Secure and Energy Efficient mmWave Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Communications. Future wireless networks comprising unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in millimeter wave bands will provide ubiquitous connectivity to a massive number of devices, even in unexpected situations such as disaster relief. Common wireless security solutions are developed only for terrestrial infrastructures but are unsuitable for mmWave UAVs due to the high mobility and limited energy supply. This project aims to develop novel energy efficient physical layer security techniques to prevent system attacks and malfunctions. The expected outcomes will deliver innovative solutions to safeguard future wireless networks. The project should benefit Australia in advancing knowledge base in wireless security and supporting future critical infrastructures.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0804 - Data Format. Lead: A/Prof Yi Hong

Modern mathematics to unravel the birth of coherence in dynamical systems. This project aims to reveal the precise mathematical mechanisms underlying the emergence and disappearance of long-lived coherent features in dynamical systems. This project expects to generate new fundamental mathematics in the area of dynamical systems, using innovative operator-theoretic approaches to carefully tease apart the lifecycles of coherent structures. The expected outcomes of this project include new mathematical theory and computational algorithms to anticipate the genesis and destruction of coherent objects, which are key organisers of complex geophysical flows. This breakthrough mathematics should provide significant benefits, such as improved prediction of eddy transport and persistence of weather and climate patterns.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0102 - Applied Mathematics. Lead: Prof Gary Froyland

Teacher capabilities in conditions of superdiversity. The increasing diversity of students in schools presents a significant challenge for the professional education and practice of teachers. The project aims to develop an original approach to measuring teacher capabilities to respond to and engage with difference. Its expected significance is in building new knowledge about teacher workforce development to achieve education goals and social cohesion in conditions of superdiversity. The project's expected outcomes include a metric of teacher capabilities that can inform the professional education of teachers and policy settings in this country and internationally. This large-scale study should return real benefits to ensure successful education and well-being of diverse students.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1303 - Specialist Studies In Education. Lead: Prof Alex Kostogriz

Chlorine Evolution Catalysts for Efferent Seawater Electrolysis. Seawater is the most abundant aqueous resource on earth that is readily accessible at very low costs, but yet to be directly utilised for production of hydrogen fuel and commodity chemicals. This project aims to develop cheap and plentiful carbon-based high performance chlorine evolution electrocatalysts for seawater electrolysis powered by renewable electricity to realise the production of hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide directly from seawater. The electrolyser can also be used to treat desalination brine while produce hydrogen and chemicals. The success of the project will set a firm technological foundation for seawater utilisation, which will add to Australian capability to meet future energy and environment challenges.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: Prof Yun Wang

Juungambala: More-than-human agreement making with/as Gumbaynggirr Country. This project aims to develop & model Indigenous-led land practices, protocols & more-than-human agreements between Gumbaynggirr Custodians, non-Gumbaynggirr people & Country to enhance Australia’s capacity to respond to disruptive environmental change through Juungambala, setting things right. This project expects to generate new knowledge in Indigenous-led, Country-led environmental practice by working with inter-species communications (koalas, whales, plants) & innovative songline mapping. Intended outcomes include enhanced stakeholder capacities, intercultural & intergenerational learnings. Benefits include enriched relationships with Country, nurturing of songlines & biodiversity corridors, & development of environmental best practice.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: Dr Paul Hodge

Outfoxing the fox: new cost-effective ways to protect threatened species. This project aims to address the damage caused by invasive foxes by applying new methods of protection for threatened species. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of conservation biology and invasive species management by comparing the effectiveness of fox control strategies for improving the population viability of declining freshwater turtles. Expected outcomes of this project include a community-based conservation model that prevents turtle extinctions in south-eastern Australia at considerable cost savings. Significant benefits include improved management of the impacts of invasive species, and restoration of ecosystem services provided by the scavenging role of freshwater turtles for maintaining water quality.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0502 - Environmental Science and Management. Lead: A/Prof James Van Dyke

An early warning system for police workplace health and performance. This project aims to build a comprehensive organisational model of police workplace health and performance. This project answers the call for immediate organisational reform of police workplaces resulting from an Australian national study (2018) and Australian Senate Inquiry (2019). Police experience harm that must be addressed through organisational improvements, leading to more efficient policing. In the first study of its kind, this project will develop a practical early warning system that promotes strategic and front-line leadership capability of Australian police agencies in workplace health and performance. It will allow better identification of risk, resource allocation and tracking of these critical issues in policing.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1602 - Criminology. Lead: Dr Jacqueline Drew

Towards 'zero hunger': improving food relief services in Australia. This project aims to improve the effectiveness of the food relief sector in meeting the needs of >5m Australians experiencing food insecurity annually. Following an innovative co-design process with sector stakeholders and their clients, this project investigates food relief service models that satisfy emergency needs as well as address root causes of food insecurity. Expected outcomes include tested best-practice guidelines and auditing tools for improving, monitoring and evaluating food relief services. These will not only assist >2,500 volunteer-run organisations to deliver more nutritious foods to more people, through a more dignified, fairer and diversified service, but map a pathway for clients out of food insecurity.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1605 - Policy and Administration. Lead: Prof Svetlana Bogomolova

Understanding and Addressing Informal Voting in Victoria. Victoria's informal vote rate is high and rising. In order to combat the problem of hundreds of thousands of 'lost votes' at Victorian state and local government elections we must first understand it. This collaboration with the Victorian Electoral Commission addresses the problem at both state and local levels over 3 election periods using 4 distinct studies. We combine experimental data, aggregate-level data and individual-level data to provide a thorough and multi-dimensional picture of informal voting. We will then propose remedies to be trialled and assessed. Taken together, our studies will represent the first multi-dimensional analysis of informality to be conducted in any Western democracy. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1606 - Political Science. Lead: Prof Lisa Hill

Sparking Imagination Education: Transforming inequality in schools. This project will produce an Imagination Education Pedagogical Framework for use by teachers in schools. Imagination is recognised as beneficial for diverse groups of young people who experience educational inequality. This collaboration will support access to prominent industry insights on methods for using imagination practices to enhance educational equity. Using co-design with AIME and Social Ventures Australia, it will investigate how these insights can be translated to school contexts to enrich Australian schooling in an environment under intensifying external pressures. The outcomes of this project will support national education agendas for embedding twenty-first century skills of imagination in Australian schooling.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1608 - Sociology. Lead: Prof Valerie Harwood

ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE). Urban utilities are in need to design resilient wastewater infrastructure to tackle the pressures of urban intensification, waterways pollution and climate change. This Hub aims to transform the wastewater industry with an unprecedented, city-scale circular economy of nutrients based on urine separation and processing at building level, to produce safe and effective liquid fertilisers. By engaging with stakeholders across the value chain, this Hub expects to bring two urine processing technologies to commercial readiness, and to produce new regulations and business models for the circular economy. This will add resilience to the wastewater and urban farming industries, and will create market opportunities for new Australian technologies.. Scheme: Industrial Transformation Research Hubs. Field: 0907 - Environmental Engineering. Lead: Prof Ho Kyong Shon

Advanced framework materials for hydrogen storage applications. This project aims to develop new molecular materials capable of the highly efficient storage of hydrogen gas. Through an innovative interdisciplinary approach that targets the synthesis and detailed characterisation of two classes of molecular material this project expects to generate step-change advances in the understanding of how hydrogen gas uptake relates to the chemical and physical attributes of porous molecular systems. Significant anticipated outcomes and benefits include the development of new material design approaches that optimise performance across a diverse parameter space, and the generation of advanced new materials worthy of commercial development, spanning small scale mobile to large scale stationary storage applications.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0303 - Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry. Lead: Prof Cameron Kepert

To map and enhance Australian musical improvisation as a creative industry. The project maps transforming improviser networks in Australian music since 1970, to inform how cultural innovation develops and disseminates. Application of new statistical techniques (temporal network analysis) will combine with in-depth focus groups to show how improvisation excellence depends on a mix of artistic craft, networked collaboration and institutional support. This knowledge will assist music venues and industry in nurturing improvisation as a cultural force and commercial opportunity for export and tourism attraction post Covid-19. The novel method, integrating computational network analysis with qualitative research, will also inform and build capacity for future understandings of cultural fields and industries.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1904 - Performing Arts and Creative Writing. Lead: Prof Roger Dean

Sustainable Hydrogen Production from Used Water. The project aims to address the pressing challenge of water scarcity in hydrogen production by developing an innovative approach of using used water as the feed for water electrolysis. The project will result in an in-depth understanding of the impacts of water impurities in used water on the performance and durability of water electrolysers, and develop guidelines for the design of highly durable water electrolysers and the operation and upgrade of existing wastewater treatment plants. The project will advance the practical applications of water electrolysis for scalable and sustainable hydrogen production and help Australia secure a leading position in the global emerging hydrogen economy.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Xiwang Zhang

Developing a national rural volunteering roadmap. This project aims to investigate the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia. Conducting a national analysis of volunteering demand and supply, this project expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of the structural, demographic, organisational and personal factors affecting the sustainability of rural volunteering. Expected outcomes of this project include a world-first index of volunteering vulnerabilities and a spatial map of volunteering unevenness, leading to the development of an evidence-based National Rural Volunteering Roadmap (2025-2035), which will guide our volunteering peak body partners, governments and rural communities to plan for and support rural volunteering over the longer-term.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1608 - Sociology. Lead: Prof Leonie Lockstone-Binney

Putting death in its place. The project aims to link 890,000 population records to place of residence from 1838 to 1930, to examine the relationships between where people live, mortality, life expectancy and health. Where people live impacts their life-course outcomes. Using novel matching techniques, the project expects to identify intergenerational changes and the spatial dynamics of inequality and social mobility. Expected outcomes include the creation of a public resource of linked data and a better understanding of long-run health and inequality. These should provide economic and social benefits by informing policy aimed at contemporary social and health challenges, enhancing our understanding of Australian history, and developing public resources.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1402 - Applied Economics. Lead: A/Prof Rebecca Kippen

Redesigning apartment policy standards for health and wellbeing. This project aims to examine the impact of apartment design standards on residents’ health and wellbeing. It seeks to (1) identify a refined set of evidence-informed quantifiable policy standards that protect residents’ health and wellbeing; and (2) evaluate their uptake by industry and barriers to implementation. Many design standards are based on intuition and experience rather than empirical evidence, and little is known about whether the standards and thresholds stipulated are sufficient to support health. Expected outcomes include tailored policy-specific recommendations for design policy and the planning of apartment precincts. Benefits include the delivery of convivial, equitable, healthy and sustainable apartment housing.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1205 - Urban and Regional Planning. Lead: Dr Sarah Foster

Iron-based high-temperature topological superconductors. Because of topological non-trivial nature and zero resistance, topological superconductors are very promising in the application of future electronic devices. This project aims to achieve intrinsic and robust topological superconductors at high-temperature by engineering iron-based superconductors via precisely controlling the defects, chemical doping, interface and substrates. Expected outcomes of this project will include high-temperature iron-based topological superconductors as new material platforms for the study of exotic properties of topological superconductivity and future application in high-temperature fault-tolerant quantum computing. . Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Dr Zhi Li

Pathways for Indigenous and Western knowledge into Environmental Policy. The aim of this project is to identify the ways in which all knowledge, particularly Western and Indigenous knowledges can work together to inform environmental policy, with a focus on climate change adaptation. Using participatory methodologies and supported by an Indigenous led advisory group, the project will partner with Indigenous Ranger groups to interrogate three key knowledge management concepts: integration, co-production and co-existence. Based on communities of practice, in the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Basin, Australia, the Fellowship seeks to produce mechanisms of knowledge co-existence and maintenance that will contribute to stronger environmental policies and create spaces for Indigenous voices to be represented within them.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1604 - Human Geography. Lead: Prof Melissa Nursey-Bray

Smart Wireless Radio Environments for the 6G Era. This project aims to revolutionise radio signal propagation and information transfer by developing “smart” wireless radio environments. Using Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS), the smart wireless network can transmit information without generating new signals but recycling the incoming signal. However, as an emerging technology, fundamental analysis – in terms of rate, reliability, and efficiency – is needed to understand the performance of RIS-empowered wireless networks. Expected outcomes include new communication-theoretic models and the enabling technologies to realise them in practice. These smart environments have the potential to offer “greener” and more "seamless wireless connectivity" for the future wireless network.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1005 - Communications Technologies. Lead: Dr Saman Atapattu

Automatic Authorities: Charting a Course for Legitimate AI. Public and private actors are increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exercise power over citizens, who are increasingly unsure whether to accept that power. AI faces a crisis of legitimacy. This project aims to use technically- and empirically-grounded philosophy to make Australia a global leader in the study and design of legitimate AI. The project expects to launch and make fundamental progress in a new field: the Political Philosophy of AI. Expected outcomes include new strategies shared with industry and government partners for designing and deploying legitimate AI systems. Expected benefits include the opportunity to enjoy the public and private efficiencies enabled by AI, without compromising our freedom and equality.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1606 - Political Science. Lead: Prof Seth Lazar

Constitutional Design & Democratic Resilience . Democracy is under stress worldwide. Both new and longstanding are seeing waves of democratic erosion. In many cases, this erosion is also taking new and more subtle forms, which are harder to detect than outright coups or suspensions of democracy – that is, they involve a form of “abusive constitutional change” that uses existing legal democratic norms and processes to subvert democracy from within. This Project will investigate the nature and scope of this problem of abusive constitutional change, as well as potential solutions through constitutional design. It will offer new theoretical insights for the field of comparative constitutional studies, and practical insights for policymakers in Australia and globally.. Scheme: ARC Future Fellowships. Field: 1801 - Law. Lead: Prof Rosalind Dixon